Trinity River Trails Fartlek

AM: 40 min. w/u (5+ miles)
Target: 2x1 min.; 1x5 min.; 2x2 min.; 2x1 min. all @5k pace
Actual: Above, plus 5x30 sec. on/off ("Out" in 40 mins., "back" in 34)
1 mile c/d
Total: 10.5 miles
PM: 43 mins. (5.5 miles)

Brrrr, was it cold this morning! Despite my expectation of mild, if not warm, weather in Texas, it's been downright freezing since I landed in Austin on Monday morning. As someone who hails from this glorious state, I should've known that just because it was 70 degrees on Saturday doesn't mean it can't be 30 degrees and raining on Sunday, which it was. By the time I made the drive from Austin to Dallas on Monday afternoon temperatures were barely hovering above freezing, with the wind chill at least 10 degrees colder. Good thing I've got plenty of Craft gear for layering!

At any rate, come Wednesday morning there was work to be done. I spent Monday and Tuesday nights near the stomping grounds of my alma mater and was absolutely thrilled to put in some mileage along the soft surface trails that I know like the back of my hand. I woke up Wednesday a bit apprehensive about trying to run hard in the frigid weather, but fortunately the wind had abated and I had the luxury of waiting until close to sunrise before heading out the door. The mercury was hovering in the low 20s, and I felt every bit of it. The first few miles were dark and finger-numbing, but since the workout was designed as a pre-race for Friday's 5k and thus quite brief, it made perfect sense to indulge in a long, easy warmup before flipping a U-turn and cranking down the pace. And once I did, I felt awesome! Seriously, I have no idea what kind of pace I was maintaining as I don't have a GPS and the unpaved section of the river trail doesn't follow the mile markers, but I felt like I was flying. Once the sun began to poke its first tentative rays above the horizon, my body responded to the slight increase in temperature accordingly by increasing the pace even further. I felt good enough to take the liberty of adding on 5x30 seconds on/off at the end, with the final result showing that I'd completed the return trip a full six minutes faster than the outbound (which means I wasn't dilly dallying too much on my rest segments either). I finished up the run with a huge smile on my face, grateful for the rare moments like this one when the daily grind suddenly feels so effortless.

Next up: back in the car with Austin as my destination. The rest of the week will be jam-packed with The Running Event trade show, reuniting with dozens and dozens of industry friends, tromping the Town Lake trails, competing in the Indie 5k and of course spreading the Karhu and Craft gospel far and wide. It's sure to be exhausting but also incredibly rewarding and a ton of fun. See you in ATX!

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Who Says You Can't Go Home

One of the perks of my amazing job is the almost constant opportunity to run with different people in new and exciting places. Because I happened to be traveling this week to Texas and Oklahoma--the former being the state where I grew up and the latter being where I spent a summer with Jordan a few years back--this week's running was made extra amazing due to the amount of familiar faces I had the pleasure of seeing.

My first stop, Austin, brought 90+ degree temperatures and, not coincidentally, several days of pre-5:30am wake-ups. On Tuesday morning I hosted a wear test run at Luke's Locker and enjoyed some miles around the Lone Star capitol and Town Lake with some store staff and customers. Wednesday morning found me at the same place, same time for a track workout at a nearby high school. I was fortunate enough to tag along with several of the aforementioned Luke's crew who were also planning a trip to the oval, and though their workout was neither the same pace nor the same rest as mine I still benefited from their presence and encouragement as I pushed through the palpably humid air. On the jog over to the track I met a Luke's runner who shared her incredible story of losing over 100 pounds in the past year, solely through the old-fashioned method of drastically changing her diet and training for her first half-marathon. 100 pounds--can you imagine?! She said she went to pick her dad up from the airport a few months ago and he literally walked by her without a sliver of recognition. This young woman was eager to talk to me about my training and my Trials preparation, but I was quick to assure her with complete sincerity that her progression was much more remarkable and inspiring than mine. Stories like hers make me fall in love with the running community all over again.

Speaking of the Trials, however, while in Austin I also had the opportunity to catch up with Allison Macsas, my roomie from Houston Meltdown 2011. Allison, who runs for Team Rogue Elite, missed the Trials standard by a heartbreaking 30 seconds on that day but just last week redeemed herself with a sub-2:45 in Vancouver. Team Rogue Elite coaches Ruth England and Steve Sisson (who is also the head women's coach at Texas) graciously invited me into their home along with the rest of the female Team Rogue Elite contingent for an evening of delicious wine and food and conversation. As is inevitable with a group of runners, the conversation eventually drifted back to training, and I remained mostly quiet as I listened to Steve espousing his own pearls of wisdom. The one sentiment that stuck with me the most was his notion of "checking off all the boxes" every day. He rightfully believes that one day or one workout isn't any more significant than those that come in line before it or after it, but rather that the sum total of continued consistent training ultimately moves mountains. If you go to bed each night secure in the knowledge that you've "checked off all the boxes" of that day's training--whether it be running, stretching, core, weights, fueling, massage, whatever--then you can rest easy knowing you've done everything you need to do in order to add one more drop in your fitness bucket. For someone like me, this perspective is both challenging and comforting. Challenging because my work and travel schedule often means the only box I check off is hastily stretching a hammy or calf muscle while hurrying through a frantic post-run shower, but also comforting because it means that greatness can be achieved in small increments and gradual accumulations.

As my trip brought me further north to Ft. Worth, the influx of familiar faces continued in earnest. Thursday afternoon I took in an easy afternoon double around the Rivercrest Country Club with my friend and former training partner Cindy. It was just like old times--plus one small addition, as on this day I was also pushing her almost-two-year-old daughter Ellie in the baby jogger. This was my first baby jogger experience, one that left my upper arms sore for several days, and I finished the run absolutely awed by people like Mike Beigay and Mike Kahn who can click off sub-6 miles with their kidlets in tow. Friday morning found me once again running on the familiar Trinity River Trails, only this time with another old training buddy Megan Skeels. A former high school stud (her Texas Relays two-mile record stood for over 15 years) and Arkansas standout, Skeels also went the motherhood route and put her running on hold for a few years before returning to the sport with the marathon Trials in her sights. After a disappointing finish in Houston (noticing a Houston pattern here?) and an agonizingly close 2:46:30 in Eugene a few weeks ago, she may re-train her sights on the half-marathon qualifying time this summer. Whichever route she chooses, I have no doubt she'll be toeing the line with me in Houston in 2012.


Ellie showing off her new Karhus (and her undies...oops!)

At this point you're probably thinking my week of reunion runs must be drawing to a close. Hardly! I was borderline giddy on Friday afternoon as I continued northbound toward Norman, OK and the famed OK Runner shoe purveyors. Jordan worked at OK Runner for almost three years while he was in grad school, and we both consider the entire crew (including Luna Bar-loving pup Lance) to be family. Returning to Norman brought back a flood of memories from the amazing summer that Jordan and I spent living in a crappy apartment above Mr. Roberts Furniture on Main Street. Back then our days consisted of little more than running, slinging shoes, running some more and savoring warm and windy evenings of laughter with friends. (Come to think of it, that's pretty much what our lives are like now too. Sweet!) Norman might not be many people's idea of summer vacation, but the company we kept made every moment enjoyable. I was lucky enough to spend some time with a few of those people this weekend--Scotty, Jerry, Jason, Kristi, Aja, Craig and Jenny, to name a few--and even put in some miles together around town. On Saturday afternoon I experienced what I might consider to be the singular most random encounter of my entire life, during which I ran into my mom's former college roommate in the bathroom of Jason's Deli. The randomness was further compounded by the fact that neither of us live anywhere remotely close to Norman and have not seen each other in about five years, so needless to say it was quite the pleasant surprise! (In the course of our hasty catch-up conversation--which, yes, also took place in the bathroom--I learned that Tina actually reads this blog. Since she is quite an accomplished writer this means I will have to take measures to step up my prosaic game going forward.)


Lance the OK Runner guard dog hard at work

Though every single one of the moments described above made my heart happy, the run on this trip I enjoyed the most took place this morning with my dad. For the final leg of my trip I met my parents in Plano for a post-Mother's Day dinner and hotel sleepover, and this morning I took my dad on a tour of the crushed gravel path on the Frito-Lay campus that Jordan and I discovered a few months ago. At the tender age of 62, my dad ran a blazing sub-22 minute 5k yesterday after hovering in the 22's and 23's for the past year or so. Even more remarkable, we averaged right around 8:15 pace for his long run today, which meant he ran just over a minute per mile slower than his race pace! I hope I'm still running when I'm his age, much less still improving, and it was fun to catch up as we clicked off the miles together.

So that pretty much sums it up--only not at all. It's not exactly possible to articulate how blessed I feel to be able to reunite with so many friends and family in the course of a week, all while getting paid to talk about the sport and the brands I love every day with fellow runners and athletes. Home is where the heart is, as the axiom goes, and this trip brought the realization that I am lucky enough to have several homes and many companions with which to share them.

It's a good feeling.

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Cowtown Long Run

1 hour 46 mins
(~14-14.5 miles)

Yup, the inevitable finally happened. I'm sick.

In hindsight, this is an ineluctable conclusion to the past few weeks of crazy travel, crazy work hours, a lot of running, a lot of free alcohol and not a lot of sleep. As early as last Sunday afternoon, I came to the realization that it was not a question of if I would get sick, but rather when. In that respect I suppose it's a miracle that I didn't feel the first tell-tale scratchiness of the throat until Friday afternoon, when Jordan and I bid Austin adieu and set off in our rental car toward Dallas. Jordan had already begun feeling badly the day before, which further solidified the guarantee that I too would shortly begin experiencing symptoms.

For the most part, this slowly gathering storm of snot and sniffles hasn't hindered my enjoyment of the weekend. We've still been able to spend some quality time with friends, enjoy our runs and even take in a bit of shopping. But my burgeoning cold finally hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday morning, right smack dab in the middle of what was supposed to be an easy long run in Ft. Worth. Let's just say it did not end well for poor little me.

The first hour of the run was great. I'd reserved Jordan and I a room at a hotel where my parents always used to stay when they came to visit me at TCU, just a few steps from the Trinity River trail system that I know and love. Knowing Jordan prefers loop courses to mundane out-and-backs, I'd mentally devised what I thought was a pretty nice route for our run today. It started out with a few westward miles on the trail before crossing over a low water crossing, then continued on a trail/bike path through the shaded Overton Park neighborhoods. After dead-ending at the end of the park, we turned left to head uphill toward the TCU campus. This was the part of the run I was most anticipating, as I was eager to see all the construction and renovations that have taken place in the years since I attended. Turns out that when your football team goes from average to national class, funding seems to materialize out of nowhere. Sure enough, as Jordan and I jogged up through the campus, I hardly recognized any of the buildings--including my own freshman dorm--that had once been as familiar as the back of my hand. Once clear of campus we popped out on University Drive, which commenced a long downhill back to the river trail. At this point we were just over an hour into the run and I was feeling great, despite the warm (70+ degree) weather and excessive (30+ mph) wind. I had no idea how drastically that was about to change.


TCU's Frog Fountain at night: one of the few remaining
constants from my tenure there

I felt the first inkling of my sudden implosion when Jordan suggested that I do a series of one-minute pickups. This is something that he and Jeff have been incorporating into his long runs for a while, and it worked out splendidly for me when I tried it for the first time in San Diego this summer. After the first few segments today, however, I could tell I was struggling. It wasn't so much my legs, though they were beginning to feel fatigued, but my breathing felt shallow, hoarse, panicky. The wind was at our backs at this point, which should've made me feel better, but instead it only filled me with impending dread. If I felt this poorly going into the wind, how much of a death march would the final miles of the run be once we turned around? A few minutes later I voiced my concern to Jordan, who questioned whether we should pull the plug immediately. Instead, I suggested we keep going another half mile or so, as I was growing increasingly thirsty and knew where a water fountain was located. We soldiered on, finishing off one last pickup (our fifth?) before reaching the fountain.

Once we turned around, it was every bit as bad as I'd imagined. Even though I tried to tuck in and draft behind Jordan, sudden gusts of wind reduced me practically to a standstill. I swear my cheeks even started flapping at one point. I could tell I was slowing Jordan down and didn't want to drag him into the morass of my misery, so I gave him permission to go ahead while I slogged through the last few miles. I was defeated, dehydrated, demoralized. Moreover, I was mystified. How was it possible for a run to go from great to abysmal in such a short span of time? We'd planned to run a solid two hours, but clearly I would fall well short of that. Now I know that it can be attributed to one part wind, one part dehydration and about five parts sickness. As the day progressed I proceeded to feel worse and worse, ultimately reduced to eating soup from Panera for dinner and passing out at 9:30 while watching the American Music Awards. People, did you hear that?? I was watching the American Music Awards. That's when you know that things just aren't right in my world. Someone please put me out of my misery.

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Falling Down on the Job

No, literally. I fell down. I can honestly say that as far as I can recall, this is the first time I've ever fallen while running, and I sure made the most of it. It all went down, so to speak, on the darkened pre-dawn streets of suburban north Dallas; Plano, to be specific, at Luke's Locker. I'm in Dallas for the rest of the week working the Uptown Run, and my first stop was the Wednesday morning social run at Luke's. It was a mere five minutes into our run that I took a tumble just as we were crossing on a concrete overpass. One minute I was bipedal and the next I was on the ground. The brunt of the impact was absorbed by my left knee, the remainder by the palms of my hands. My first thought upon impact was, "Holy crap this HURTS." My second thought was, "If I just ripped my brand new Craft capris I'm going to be beyond pissed." Fortunately, while the skin beneath the capris was more or less shredded, the fabric remained unscathed. What a testament to the brand!

As I'm typing this now, 36 hours later, I'm still a bit battered. I was going to upload a photo that I snapped on my phone, but the photo doesn't adequately capture the various shades and contours of my mangled knee. Suffice it to say that my kneecap is swollen not unlike a reddish blue grapefruit and I'm probably going to have a killer scar. Let me also add that trying to bathe and wash your hair when your hands feel like they're on fire is one of life's least pleasant experiences. Fortunately I've run several times since then and, though the knee throbs a bit on the downhills, there doesn't seem to be any serious damage. I've got to tell you, when I promised I'd stop blogging about mundane runs this isn't exactly the alternative I was envisioning. I suppose the moral of this little story is that I'm a klutz and I'm lucky I didn't bust my head open. Every day is a gift.

Thankfully my day took a turn for the better late in the afternoon when I had the chance to drive to Ft. Worth and visit my good friend Cindy and her kidlet Eloise. When I last saw Cindy she had just given birth; now Ellie is almost two and Cindy is pregnant again! How time flies. We had an awesome time hanging out and catching up on life, and I'm so glad I had the chance to make it out there. I made the most of my time in Ft. Worth by sneaking in a run on the Trinity River trail while Cindy and Ellie went for a walk. The late afternoon air was warm and dry and the sun was slowly setting on the horizon, painting a truly picturesque scene from my vantage point on the crushed gravel trail. It's funny; when I lived in Ft. Worth I always complained about how boring it was to run here. Now that I've traveled and lived in so many other places I can honestly say the river trail is a near perfect training venue. 25-30 miles of crushed gravel trails that are wide, clean, flat and well-maintained, not to mention safe and accessible by at least a dozen different spots around town. I may not have appreciated it while living here, but I can assure you I enjoyed every minute of my run this afternoon.


View of downtown Ft. Worth from the Trinity River Trail

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Happy Birthday, Jordan! Now Go Rent a Car.

59 mins. + 4x10 sec. hill sprints
8 miles

When Jordan and I landed at DFW after our early morning flight, we were greeted by an unexpected text from Craig saying we didn't have to come in to work. With the day suddenly wide open, we decided to make an impromptu trip to Ft. Worth and visit a few friends, namely my great friend and former running partner Cindy. She just gave birth to a baby girl a week ago and I was excited to pay her and Eloise Grace a visit.

After hanging out at her house for a bit, Jordan and I decided to go for a run. She lives near Rivercrest Country Club and the Trinity River Trails that I'm so familiar with (and, more importantly, had graciously offered us food, beverage and shower after the run) so we set off with the goal of getting in an hour on our feet and a few hill sprints up the infamous Hidden Road.

The day was warm and humid but thankfully overcast, and we enjoyed winding around on the golf course, through the neighborhoods and along the crushed gravel path of the trail. We finished up with the hill sprints and a few more loops on the golf course before heading back to Cindy's. After visiting with her for a few more hours, we went to pay a quick visit to another friend and former running buddy Cabe and his four-legged friend Quest. We capped off the day with a spontaneous dinner meeting with Aja in Ardmore before finally returning to Norman. What a great day, and such a special treat to see so many familiar faces!


Meet Eloise Grace Craine and her proud mom Cindy

Oh yeah, and it's Jordan's birthday. He can now rent a car and do all sorts of other big-boy things.

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Rivercrest Country Club Loop

60-61 mins.
8 miles

Yesterday Jordan and I bid my parents farewell and then drove to Ft. Worth to spend our last night in Texas. On Monday morning I wanted to take him on one of my familiar running routes from when I lived there, mainly focusing on the river trail and also Rivercrest Country Club, which is closed to golfers on Monday and therefore free reign for runners like us. While we could've run to the river from our hotel in downtown, I preferred to start and finish from Rivercrest so we drove there.


The facade of Bass Hall, an architectural and cultural
landmark near our hotel in downtown Ft. Worth

The most notable factor on this run was the wind. I'd almost forgotten how gusty it can get on the exposed river trail, and Jordan was no doubt feeling a preview of things to come upon his return to Norman. He decided to be very un-chivalrous (which is shocking) and refused to allow me to draft, so I had to pull my weight and keep the pace respectable on the windy sections. Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable run. We started with a few miles on the golf course, then ran through Crestwood and the Greenwood Cemetery before hopping onto the river trail for the remainder of the run. We finished up Hidden Road, which is about a 600-700 meter hill that I used to have the pleasure of climbing almost every day, then jogged a few small loops on the golf course to bring it to an even hour.

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Cowtown Jaunt

~57 mins.

8 miles

This morning I awoke at 5am (that's 4am Central, for anyone who can't do the math) and immediately headed to the airport. I had no idea how busy things were going to be on the morning before Thanksgiving--the busiest travel day of the year at one of the biggest airports in the country--and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to spare before my 7:30am flight. To my pleasant surprise, everything went incredibly smoothly, and I even had time to read a magazine before boarding the plane and settling in for a catnap.

After a brief flight of just over two hours (which felt even shorter when contrasted with my day-long cross-country travels of the previous few weeks), we landed at DFW. I met Jordan just outside my baggage claim and we headed to the rental car center to procure our luxurious vehicle for the weekend. For a mere $7/day I upgraded us to a Jetta, and I think it's safe to say this is the nicest rental car I've ever had. Sure beats the hell out of that minivan. Anyway, we drove to Ft. Worth to get in a run before driving to my parents' house in Nowhere, East Texas (otherwise known as Mt. Pleasant). A good friend of mine lives along the Trinity River trail, so we stowed our belongings and changed at his house and then headed out the door. I had a loop in mind that I thought was somewhere between 7 and 9 miles and would give Jordan a nice sampling of Ft. Worth neighborhoods.

View of downtown Ft. Worth from the river trail

As it turns out, the loop ended up being almost exactly 8 miles. We headed east on the river trail for a few miles, then crossed a bridge and meandered through the posh neighborhoods around the Colonial Country Club. From there we ran toward Overton Park and then hopped on the bike path for a bit. We crossed Bellaire and continued along the trail until we reached the low water crossing opposite the side of the river we'd started on. I opted to cross on the stepping stones, while Jordan wussed out and took the concrete dam. We jogged the remaining mile back to Cabe's place and then did a few strides in the grass near his house to shake out the legs.

Low water crossing on the Trinity River at sunset

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